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So, on 22 March 2002, the winner of the competition was announce and needless to say, the results came as an absolute SHOCKER!! Why you might ask? Well, personally speaking, I think that there were better candidates participating in the competition. Sure, the lad isn't bad to look at (and fairly tall), but gawd almighty... his answers to the questions posed needs more help... doesn't say much about this personality either. Of course, it doesn't hurt when one is an Olympian. I might be a little bitchy / suspicious when I say that it doesn't hurt that he is a Malay. Since the conception of this competition in Malaysia, the winners have been predominantly Chinese and Indian... not a single Malay has won. This is a little surprising considering that 60% (give or take 5%) of our population consists of Malays. Competitions, especially beauty pageants have been known to honour people of a certain race, despite having better candidates participating.... it's a political thing.
So, the winner of this year's competition is non other than bachelor number 35, Wan Azlan Abdullah. Here are some of his answers listed in the magazine.
If you could possess a superpower, what would it be? Stop everyone and everything so I have more time for myself. Then I could sleep, eat, or work more or just get out of a sticky situation.
If you could have any job in the world, what would it be? A rock star during the 80s because they were considered Gods then. They got anything and everything they wanted while having a good time.
Why was it a shocker than he won? Well, like I said, there were better looking (with better personalities) candidates. However, realistically speaking, the questions the magazine asked, well, it does leave a lot to be desired and it doesn't reflect the true personality of the candidates. Also, cleo.time.net.my had a website whereby the public was invited to vote for their favourite bachelors. There were a few categories and I periodically visited the website to see how the votes were going. The winner didn't appear in the top 3 list at all! Well, not when I was checking anyways.
A couple of points to note about this website:
1. The voting system was definitely screwy i.e. it wasn't accurate. I suspect that someone toyed with the system internally / the system got hacked. Why you might ask. Well, lets just say that the votes varied a lot... in the beginning, there were a realistic number of votes... for a while there, the candidates with the most votes was a toss up between the following 3 candidates:
 |
 |
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a doctor |
an inline skater |
a recording artiste |
The number of votes that they had were realistic (e.g. increasing by a few tens per day)... then suddenly, lo and behold, the votes started sky rocketing... into the 10s of thousands. I never knew that there were so many females in Malaysia!! New faces started appearing on the list, virtually over night... and when you look at the results, you have to think... whats up with the voters?? I could be biased in that I don't agree with the votes. Come on... how could a person who says that the best way to grab his attention is by a "girl in a bikini driving a superfast Skyline" be 2nd in the "Your Perfect Sole Mate" category? This person also said that the superpower he wishes to have would be "x-ray vision, for obvious reasons". Are women in this country galatically stupid? Nope, I don't think so. I think that the votes were screwed with... have a look for yourself here. Unfortunately, it didn't occur to me to download the results pages until the very last minute... but here are the tally of votes for the different categories on 21 March 2002. Note, the winner, Wan Azlan isn't on the list. Also note that I copied this page from the http://cleo.time.net.my website and that I left it as is.
Also, a brief analysis of the final results page (again, a direct copy and paste job from the http://cleo.time.net.my website) would show some discrepancies between that and the results page I downloaded on 21 March 2002. The voting system was clsoed on either the 21 / 22 March 2002. Somehow, the winners as listed in the final results page don't tally with what I downloaded on 21 March. For example, in the "Mania Man" category, the winner wasn't even amongst the top 3 on 21 March... showhow, he managed to get 34667 votes as opposed to the 3rd placing guy on 21 March, who had 25711 votes. He somehow managed to get in excess of 8966 votes in a space of less than 24 hours?? Hmmmmm.... makes you think doesn't it?
2. Just how humane is this website anyways? Think about it... there is an online voting system... a good system in practice and it shows that time.net.my has initiative to have the "interactive thing" happening. However, did they consider how the candidates who didn't score very high felt? The fact that they scored low or no votes in certain categories... published for the entire world to see... mustn't feel good. I felt bad for those who who didn't score votes in certain categories. Now, generally speaking, if one decides to entire a competition such as this, one is sure to have an ego to a certain degree. This ego would be somewhat trashed if one didn't score high marks. Cleo had problems recruiting candidates this year... it comes as no surprise as I would think that if the results were to be published like this... bachelors would think twice about entering the competition... it would save one from potential embarassment. Also, a little tidbit here... hehehe... one can nominate future bachelors online... again, it shows that time.net.my has initiative... however, a little birdie told me that whilst this was true from last year... somehow, the database got lost (hence the rush to recruit bachelors this year)... how true this is I have no idea... 'tis just something I heard.
On to the bits and pieces... stuff which doesn't fit anywhere... lets call this the 10 things you didn't know about the whole fiasco:
1. the gala dinner, to announce the winner was delayed for a while (despite the fact that the bachelors were told to be at the venue by 6.30pm) because certain VIP guests didn't turn up on time.
2. the bachelors couldn't bring a date or a guest for the gala dinner... they could only bring themselves...
3. as the dinner started late, the bachelors arrived at the after party late. It was announced that the after party would start at 10.30pm... the bachelors got there close to midnight. The after party was held at Emporium, a local night club.
4. at approximately 11.30pm, staff at Emporium announced that the nightclub was packed to capacity and they simply couldn't allow anyone else in. This was a shocker to me as I was still lining up outside with my friends... well, we did get there late . Thankfully, I knew someone who was already in there who had some clout... a short phone call and the 5 of us were whisked in... gawd, it's good to know people .
5. People were turned away as the nightclub was just too packed... including a few bachelors believe it or not!! One told me that he wasn't allowed into the club... thankfully, a sponsor of the competition was near the entrance and told security that he was indeed a bachelor!!
6. The bachelors were not even given a drink at the nightclub. They were kept enclosed in the VIP area with no beverages at hand whilst waiting for the announcement to be made... they weren't even given a Diet Coke... who was a big sponsor of the competition. What's up with this??
7. One would have thought that due to the nature of the competition, there would be drastically more females than males at Emporium... this was not the case... I think that the ratio was even.
8. The announcement of the winner at Emporium was a BIG, BIG anticlimax... sometime after midnight, the DJ announced the bachelors... the 40+ of them (some couldn't make it) dutifully trooped onto the dance floor... the DJ announced the winner who then proceeded to climb on top a platform, did a little jiggly dance and hopped off. The bachelors then trooped away from the dance floor, into a corner and that was it. The entire thing took about 10 minutes!! Over the loud music, I could hear people asking "is that it"?? Sad to say, but that was it. One would have thought that there would be more of a fanfare don't you think?
9. 85% of the bachelors are short!! There was one who I thought wasn't bad... infact, I told my candidate to look out for him and to get to know him better... this guy wasn't at the preview in Suria (see Cleo Bachelor 2002: The Preview for more details) but he turned up for the gala dinner. During the course of the dinner, I received an SMS from my candidate which said something along the lines of "Mr X being unimpressive, I would be severely disappointed as he was short". How short I had no idea until they marched out in Emporium. The lad is a good 2 inches shorter than me!! At first sight of the bachelors, I thought that I was standing on a step or an elevated platform or something. I looked down but no, we were on the same level. A majority of the bachelors are SHORT!! Hmmmm it wouldn't be a bad idea for Cleo to set a minimum height limit for their bachelors for future competitions or at the very least, publish their vital statistics i.e. height!! It would definitely prevent their audience from being disappointed and trust me when I say that I wasn't the only one who thought that the bachelors were short! 'Tis no wonder that the photos in the magazines are all from the waist up... one can't tell if that candidate is indeed short or not!!
10. Oh boy... I have been debating whether or not to write about this one... but I have given into the temptation... 'tis too "juicy" not to... hey, I am a bitch... but a nice one . OK... in the magazine, 50 
bachelors are featured... one stands out BIG TIME... and when I say stands out, I don't mean that he is particularly good looking... on the contrary... he is THE ONLY ONE topless! The lad stands out like a sore thumb in the magazine!! Now, why was this allowed you might ask? Well, it turns out that our topless guy, bachelor number 5 INSISTED on being topless during the photo shoot (see Cleo Bachelor 2002 for more details). Apparantly, the editor of the magazine didn't want him topless but NOOOOOOOO... he insisted on it. Sure the lad has a nice body and all but so have a lot of other guys in the competition, my candidate as well (this I know for I have seen it up close in the gym ). Naturally, as he was the only one topless, he stood out... and was centered out for attention during The Preview ... i.e. he was asked to take off his top admist hundreds of cooing girls. Point to note as well, this is the lad who cheated in the push up competition during the The Preview , the same one who didn't get THAT many votes but somehow, mysteriously managed to get onto the top 3 lists (him I paid special attention to as I wanted to see how many females would fall for his topless ploy) within the last week or so of voting... This is the same guy who wants X-ray vision, a bikini clag gal in a Skyline and if was a ruler, he'd "change the import tax on cars, speed limits and anything restricting me from having fun". On boy... this is turning into a Bachelor Number 5 bashing so I will stop here... regardless, am thankful that he didn't win.
Regardless of what I said earlier about the winner, I am glad that he won and not bachelor number 5 or any of the others who had their votes "fixed". Also, it is nice that a national treasure, i.e. an Olympian won as these atheletes do work hard and deserve every recognition they can get for representing their country.
As for me, well, I am glad that the competition and hype is finally over... My candidate had a blast...despite all the hassle he had to go through... and he's gotten recognition for his modelling career. I think that this will be the first and last time I "actively take part" in this competition.
